


Those with choices

by Kes



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-03
Updated: 2015-05-03
Packaged: 2018-03-28 21:22:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3870202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kes/pseuds/Kes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Little ficlet, set in a version of AoU that wasn’t what we got - I’m not entirely sure this is the best way of grappling with ethics, blame, saviourism, the twins’ background, collateral damage and redemption? But at least I tried. Pietro and Tony have a confrontation; Wanda joins in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those with choices

“So what’s your beef, Speedy?” Stark loomed out of the shadows of the Tower corridor. Either he had been waiting here for someone, unlikely, or he had been tracking Pietro and come to intercept him. “You and your sister, you must’ve… had a reason to listen to Strucker’s little recruitment drive. You don’t want Ultron to destroy the world, that’s great and all, but you’ll forgive me for being a bit cautious around the duo that basically broke the team.”

Pietro clenched his teeth. “Being ten and orphaned and taken away from everything we ever knew wasn’t a reason?” he started; Wanda was not here to hold him back, and fury burned along his fingers. “But you have to ask yourself, why did that happen to us? What happened in Sokovia fourteen years back, that left me and my sister with such a future?”

“There was a war,” Stark said, and shrugged. It might mean he was uncomfortable, or it might mean he didn’t care. Pietro interpreted it as the latter because it wasn’t as though Stark had any claim on his understanding.

“Our house was bombed.” To an ally, he would give the whole story. Not to Stark. He would give him enough, and that was all. “A missile landed on our carpet, and it didn’t go off, but we couldn’t get out. We waited three days, staring at it, waiting for Stark Industries to kill us. And so we were taken away from our world and into Strucker’s, and when he comes along later saying, ‘who of you wants to fight?’ – we have a reason.”

Stark wasn’t looking at him anymore, and when he spoke, it was disjointed. “I stopped that. I made that trade stop, I don’t, I don’t do that anymore. It’s over, Speedy –”

“Tell that to the people of Swakopmund.”

“Why don’t you tell that to them? Who set the Hulk loose there? Because I distinctly remember your sister targetting every member of my team, including Banner, who is my friend –”

This wasn’t going as well as he’d hoped; Swakopmund cut both ways. But Pietro could think nearly as fast as he could move. “Who gave us our orders, our plan, and why did they exist?” They bore guilt for it, his fists clenched thinking of it, but it – it had not been meant to end that way. The Hulk ran before he fought, Ultron had told them. “Who made the Hulk fight?”

“You could have made a choice.”

“Why do you think I’m here? I don’t enjoy your company.”

Stark was opening his mouth to speak when someone else interrupted him. “You could also have made a choice, many times over – Anthony Stark has many options before him.” Wanda’s voice twisted each word into a condemnation. “We were wrong. But we were not the first to be wrong in this corridor, and we are not the last. You still think you can save the world alone from the demon you created, by creating yet more.”


End file.
